OCR Text |
Show Army Reserve openhouse acquaints public with activities . . ,'-7 - " v ' ,,.. fTTt fvA 'V. -r t?( I W . ' 4 f , s I' t ', i. - ' . ' , t l . v TT V By MARCELLA WALKER The rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire is not usually heard in Pleasant Grove but last Saturday was an exception as the Pleasant Grove Army Reserve Unit held an open house for the public. Little boys, and some little girls lined up to take their turn at firing the M60 under the direction of trained Army Reserve officers as the 259th Quartermaster Battalion, a unit of the 96th U.S. Army Reserve Command, held a very special weekend drill. The object of the open house was to acquaint families of reservists with the program and to let the public know that a Reserve unit is here in town. Military equipment was on display, games were arranged for the children and refreshments were served. Even Darth Vader was on hand for the festivities. The Pleasant Grove Police Department had McGruff at the open house to talk to children about safety. The Fire Department had Pluggy, the robot fire plug, who talked about fire safety, and the Pleasant Grove Ambulance Association had the ambulance on display and were giving free blood pressure checks. A slide presentation of pictures of places the Battalion has served was available. In connection with the open house, a new commander assumed command com-mand of the unit on Sunday at 4 p.m. Lt. Col. Scott A. Pepper, a member of the Murray Police Department, is the new commander. The outgoing commander is Lt. Col. 0. Glade Hunsaker, a professor of English at Brigham , Young University. Pepper was formerly the executive officer of the 162nd Support Sup-port Group from Salt Lake City. A child takes instruction from a member of the Army Reserve about shooting machine gun at open house Saturday. i Hunsaker becomes the new Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations for the 96th U.S. Army Reserve Command. The 259th, originally activated in 1942, serving in the European and Middle East theaters during World War II, carries the notoriety of being one of the few reserve units ac-tivated'during ac-tivated'during the Vietnam conflict. In May 1968, the battalion was called out to serve and participated in several counter-offensives in the Northern I Corps Tactical Zone. "Labor with Honor" is the unit's motto and is expressive of the spirit and history of the battalion. The local unit is the Battalion Headquarters Terminal Pipeline Operation. In wartime it would serve the same purpose that Chevron Oil in Salt Lake does only for a field army, according to Capt. Ric B. Olsen, Headquarters Company Com-pany Commander. The unit could serve an area in a war zone of several hundred miles, such as from Vernal, Utah to Wendover, Nevada. Under the local Battalion Headquarters are units in Salt Lake, Provo, Colorado and Wyoming. This was originally an infantry unit. It is the one of only three units in the Reserve that handles oil pipelines. . The Battalion flag carries the campaign ribbons for Vietnam Rome, South Europe, Rhineland and Korea. |